Photographic apparatus

ABSTRACT

Automatic development apparatus for dipping a sheet of exposed photosensitized sheet material successively into liquids contained in a number of process tanks by use of a carrier suspended from a conveyor which follows a sinuous or zigzag path. The apparatus includes control device whereby the exposed sheet is fed through rollers into a carrier, the carrier is moved by the conveyor to dip the sheet and the developed sheet is withdrawn from the carrier by rollers and delivered from the apparatus.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Charles W. Clark I 2,157,128 5/1939Hershber'gW." 95/89 D King: Grove, Maidenhead, Berkshlre, 2,258,42210/1941 Rodman et a1... 95/89 D England 2,386,781 10/1945 Daly 95/89 D[2]] Appl. No. 777,324 3,088,610 5/1963 Pianowski 95/89 D [22] FiledNOV. 20, 1968 FOREIGN PATENTS [451 "1"? ""3" :2 312,030 2/1930 GreatBritain 95/89 D ma 330,550 6/1930 Great Britain 95/14 5 0 9 n 3 09812/192 GreatBr1ta1n 95/14 7. Primary Examiner-Samuel S. MatthewsAssistant Examiner- Richard M. Sheer [54] PI-IOTOGRAPIIIC APPARATUSAttorney-Watson, Cole, Grind1e. & Watson 5 Claims, 9 Drawing Figs. [1.5.CI. Automatic development'apparatus for a p sheet of exposedphotosensitized sheet material successively [51 :Il- Cl. "i; b intocontained in a number ofproceu tanks use ofa of Se. in D carriersuspended from a con eyor follo s a sinuous or :I zigzag path. Theapparatus includes control device whereby [56] N EN the exposed sheet isfed through rollers into a carrier, the car- U [TE T Es AT Ts rier ismoved by the conveyor to dip the sheet and the 2,915,976 12/1959 pp s 3|95/39 D X developed sheet is withdrawn from the carrier by rollers and3,131,621 5/1964 Murray 95/89 D delivered from the apparatus.

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ATTORNEY,

PATENTEnunv 30 197i SHEET 3 BF 7 INVENTOR cum. wmum Cum ATTORNEYSPATENTEBNHVBOIBYI 3,624,728 SHEET w 7 INVENTOR CROSS REFERENCESPreferably the conveyor is arranged to wipe the carrier on the edge ofthe tank as the carrier is withdrawn to wipe surplus liquid from thecarrier. This forms the subject of my copending application Ser. No.777,323 filed simultaneously with this application and entitledAUTOMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS.

BACKGROUND OF THE IVENTION This invention relates to automaticphotographic treatment apparatus comprising a number of process tanks,at least one carrier to hold an exposed sheet of photosensitive materialand transfer means arranged to dip the carrier successively into theprocess tanks. Such apparatus is used particularly in automaticphotographic units or kiosks which are arranged to be brought intooperation by actuation of initiating mechanism and, upon such actuation,as by insertion of a coin in a slot, applies to photosensitive sheetmaterial in an exposure position a latent image of a subject, such as aperson, occupying an appropriate position, as by being seated on a stoolin a sitters compartment, the exposed photosensitive sheet material thenbeing passed to the treatment apparatus to develop and fix the image andfinally being delivered as a fixed photograph.

One form of treatment apparatus of this kind has been disclosed inBritish Pat. No. 780,707. In this apparatus the process tanks arearranged in a circle around transfer apparatus that is used to dipcarriers successively into the tanks. The transfer apparatus is arrangedto reciprocate the carriers axially and to index them round throughsuccessive steps, each of a fraction of a revolution so that eachcarrier is lowered into a tank, raised from the tank, indexed round,lowered into the next tank and so on. The machinery necessary to effectthis movement reliably and efficiently is complex and requires a largenumber of accurately machined parts. It is accordingly extremelyexpensive and also requires skilled and frequent servicing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to providetreatment apparatus which is both simple and cheap and yet is extremelyreliable.

According to the present invention, the transfer means comprises acontinuous conveyor from which the carrier is suspended, the conveyorfollowing a sinous path such that, during advance of the conveyor, thecarrier is dipped into and withdrawn from the tanks in succession.

This arrangement is simple and it is possible to arrange for thecarriers to be efi'ectively dipped into the process liquids without theconveyor itself contacting the liquids.

The carriers may be suspended from the conveyor in pendulum fashion sothat when they hang free they are always generally vertical. Theconveyor may comprise a chain trained over an upper row and a lower rowof sprockets in zigzag fashion, and in the preferred arrangement thereare two paral lel chains with carriers suspended between them, as byhaving loops hooked over studs projecting inwardly from the chains.

Preferably, the chains are roller chains of plastic material which isresistant to chemical action.

Preferably, the drive means for the conveyor is arranged to affordintermittent movement to the conveyor. In this way it is possible toprovide a dwell period when the carriers are in the dipped position toallow the chemical action to take place and to provide another dwellperiod when the carriers are in the withdrawn position to allow processliquid to drain from the carriers and the sheets contained in them.

The conveyor may include an upper return pass and a guide below thereturn pass to engage the carriers being drawn along the 'upper pass soas to cause the lower ends of the carriers to lag on the upper ends totilt the carriers and there is a pair of endless grippers such asrollers arranged to extract the photosensitive sheet from such a tiltedcarrier by passage of the sheet through the nip between the grippers.Rollers may also be provided for feeding sheets into the carriers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention may be carried into practicein various ways but one form of automatic photographic kioskincorporating automatic development apparatus in accordance with theinvention will now be described by way of example with reference to theaccompanying drawings which show in detail only those parts of theequipment which are important to an understanding of the invention. Inthe drawings:

FIG. I is a perspective view of the automatic photographic kiosk havinga housing containing the apparatus shown in the remaining Figures of thedrawings;

FIG. 2 is an elevation in the direction of the arrow II in FIG. 1 of theautomatic development apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation in the direction of the arrow III in FIG. 1of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a central vertical section of the development apparatus;

FIG. 5 is an end elevation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 4 taken fromthe right-hand end;

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of the infeed-outfeed unit shown in FIG. 4taken from the opposite side to FIG. 4 and to a larger scale;

FIG. 7 is a side elevation of the infeed-outfeed unit and is similar toFIG. 6 but is taken from the opposite side;

FIG. 8 is a simplified side elevation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 4;and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the control system of the apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows a coin-operatedphotographic kiosk which consists of a main housing or free-standingcupboard I from which projects an arm 2 on which is fixed a seat 3 onwhich the subject to be photographed sits. The housing 1 supports ahorizontal cover or roof portion 4 which has a cantilevered section onthe underside of which there is a curtain rail 5 supporting a shortcurtain 6 which may be drawn round to conceal the head and shoulders ofthe person being photographed. In the wall of the housing I facing thesubject there is a window 7 through which a camera contained within thehousing may face the subject and there are three flash lamps 8 toilluminate the sitter. There is a slot 9 to receive a coin by which thesubject sets the apparatus in operation.

The photographic equipment within the housing I shown in FIG. 1 is showngenerally in FIGS. 2 and 3, FIG. 2 being the elevation which would beviewed by a subject on the seat 3 if the adjacent wall of the housing 1was removed. The apparatus includes a framework 11 which supports acamera 12 the lens I3 of which faces to the right in FIG. 2 towards avertical mirror 14 which is at 45 to the camera axis so that a subjectwill be viewed by the camera via the mirror I4 and the window 7. Thecamera is of the kind which operates with reversal film in strip formcontained in a magazine 15 supported above the camera. Below the camerais a development and fixing apparatus 16 arranged to dip an exposedlength of film cut from the strip successively into liquids contained ina series of tanks 17 which are supported on a platform 18 which may beelevated or lowered by a toggle-type screwjack 19.

When a person places a coin in the slot 9 a length of film is fed fromthe magazine 14 into the camera 12 and is there exposed, the lights 8flashing at the appropriate time. The exposed film is then fed downautomatically and is cut off. The exposed film now in the form of asevered sheet is fed into the development and fixing apparatus 15 whichis shown in greater detail in subsequent figures and particularly FIGS.4 and 5. The development apparatus consists essentially of an infeed andoutfeed unit 21, a conveyor unit 22 and the tank unit 17 alreadyreferred to.

The conveyor unit 22 consists of two spaced-parallel rectangular frameseach of which comprises a lower horizontal member 23, an upperhorizontal member 24 and columns 25 and 26. The two rectangular framesare mounted on the framework to leave a clear space between them. Eachof the frames carries a row of upper sprockets 31 and a row of lowersprockets 32 and an endless chain 33 is trained over the sprockets inzigzag or sinuous fashion. The chains are roller chains and arepreferably made of a plastic material which is resistant to chemicalaction. The chain passes from one end of the zigzag to the other alongan upper pass 34 from an upper sprocket 35, past an idler sprocket 36 toa second upper sprocket 37. The chains can be driven in the directionindicated by the arrow 38 by an electric motor 39 which drives certainof the lower sprockets 32 via a gearbox 40 and a chain drive.

Immediately below the frame there is the tank unit 17 which comprises arow of eight rectangular open-topped contiguous tanks 41 alternate onesof which hold processing liquids and the remainder of which held water.The liquids are used for developing and fixing the image on thephotosensitive sheet. As can be seen in FIG. the tanks 41 are wider thanthe con veyor and the frame supports a number of electric motors 42which drive paddles 43 which dip into the tanks when the tanks are intheir elevated positions. The frame also supports a number of electricimmersion heaters 44 which likewise dip into the tanks when the tanksare elevated. When the screwjack 19 (FIG. 2) is unwound to lower thetank unit I7, the upper edges of the tanks drop below the level of theheaters and the paddles 43 so that the tanks can be removed laterallywithout interfering with the heaters and the paddles.

Mounted on the upper horizontal frame members and depending into thespace between the two conveyors are two sideplates 51 one of which canbe seen in FIG. 4 and which forms the basic structure of the infeed andoutfeed unit 21. This unit is not shown in FIG. 5. Spanning between theplates 51 there are seven pairs of rollers. For infeed there are threepairs 52, 53 and 54 while for outfeed there are four pairs of rollers55, 56, 57 and 58. The infeed and outfeed also comprise narrow sheetmetal fixed guides 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 and 64.

The conveyor carries a plurality of sheet metal carriers 70 only six ofwhich are shown in FIG. 4 of which there is a total of eight or l6. Thecarriers are suspended in pendulum fashion from studs 72 which projectinwardly from the conveyors. Each carrier is formed from a bent sheet ofstainless steel 73 and two carrier arms 74 and 75 of bent square-sectionstainless steel wire having hooks 76 at their upper ends to engage thestuds 72. The sheet metal portion is formed with a flat yoke section 77'and three fingers 77, 78 and 79 depending therefrom. The two outerfingers 77 and 79 have their outer edges bent forwardly and inwardly toform open-ended vertical grooves which face one another while the bottomend of the inner finger 78 is bent inwardly and upwardly to form a hook80.

Located between the conveyor chains 33 there is a drainer shield 90which is attached to the horizontal members 24 by brackets 91. Theshield has a first upwardly inclined portion 92, a step 93 and a seconddownwardly inclined portion 94.

The apparatus described operates as follows. With the conveyor in theposition shown and stationary, the sitter inserts a coin into the slot9. The camera is operated and a sheet of exposed photosensitive paper isfed down from the camera 12 into the development apparatus as describedabove. The sheet is received between the guides 59 and 60 and is fed bythe rollers 52, 53 and 54 into a waiting carrier 70 which as this timewill have the upper edges of its sheet metal portion immediately belowthe lower end of the guides 61 and 62. The sheet is fed so that itsouter edges engage in the grooves formed in the fingers 77 and 79 of thecarrier and its lower edge engages the hook 80 at the bottom of theinner finger 78. When the sheet is in position, the motor 39 is actuatedto drive the conveyor forward a distance such that the carriercontaining the photosensitive sheet is lowered until the studs carryingthis carrier are close to the left-hand lower sprocket 32 and thecarrier is in the position shown at the left-hand side of FIG. 4. Theconveyor then stops and the carrier remains in this position for a shortdwell period, during which the photosensitive sheet is contacted by theliquid in the left-hand tank 41. After the appropriate swell period, theconveyor moves on through a further step and the carrier is raised fromthe liquid and the next carrier is lowered into the liquid in the firsttank. During the ensuing dwell period the carrier is held above theliquid in the first tank and allowed to drain. During the next step thecarrier is transferred from the first tank and lowered into the secondtank. This stepwise movement continues and the carrier passessuccessively through the tanks with a dwell period in each tank and adwell period above each tank so that surplus liquid can drain into thetank.

The length of each carrier from hook 76 at the top to hook at the bottomis approximately equal to the distance between the tops of the uppersprockets 31 and the upper edge of the tanks 41. This is illustrated bythe carrier 70a shown in chain-dotted lines in FIG. 4. The tanks are solocated relative to the sprockets that as a carrier is raised from atank it makes the last part of its movement in contact with and almostparallel with the side wall of the tank. This procedure a wiping actionwiping surplus liquid from the fingers 77 and 79. The period of dwelloccurs in the position shown by the carrier 70a and almost all theliquid on the surface of the carrier and the photosensitive sheet willdrain back into the tank. However, there will almost inevitably be dropsat the bottom ends of the fingers of the carrier and these will notdrain off under gravity. At the commencement of the next step, the studssupporting the carrier will move round the upper sprockets and will drawthe lower end of the carrier over the edge 95 of the tanks and thiswipes the last drops from the bottoms of the fingers. I

As can be seen in FIG. 4 the upper edges of the right-hand walls of thetanks 41 are formed with lips 96 which overlie the upper edges of theleft-hand walls of the next succeeding tanks so that liquid wiped off inthe manner described drains back into the tank from which it has beenwithdrawn.

The photosensitive sheet in the carrier is successively lowered into andraised from each of the processing tanks 41 and finally arrives at theright-hand end of the conveyor as viewed in FIG. 4. The upper ends ofthe carrier are then carried to the left along the upper path of theconveyor and the carrier itself engages the inclined portion 92 of theshield 90 and is tilted as the conveyor moves to the left so that thesheet lies at an angle to the horizontal with the photosensitive coatingon the upper side. One carrier which has just begun to engage the shield90 is shown in FIG. 4. During its passage along this guide the lasttraces of moisture drain from the photosensitive sheet. Its leading edgeis then engaged between the rollers 55 of the feed-out unit. The sheetis thus withdrawn from the carrier and is passed between the guides 63and 64 and is advanced by the rollers 56, 57 and 58 and is dischargedfrom the apparatus into a feed out slot 103 seen in FIG. I where it maybe received by the person whose photograph has been taken. After thephotosensitive sheet has been withdrawn from the carrier, the carrierleaves the upwardly inclined portion 92 of the shield 90, drops down thestep 93 on to the downwardly inclined portion 94 and progressivelyreturns to its initial position ready to receive a furtherphotosensitive sheet.

The means by which the sequence of operations is performed will now bedescribed in more detail with reference particularly to FIGS. 6 to 9.

The feed-in rollers 52, 53 and 54 are driven by a motor and gear box 101through a drive sprocket 102 (FIG. 6) and a drive chain 103 which istensioned by an adjustable guide I04. The feed-out rollers 55, 56, 57and 58 are driven by a motor and gearbox 105 through a sprocket 106(FIG. 7) and a drive chain 107 which is tensioned by an adjustable guide108. The conveyor chains 33 are driven by the motor 39 shown in FIG.

5 and in more detail in FIG. 8. The motor 39 dives the gearbox '40 whichdrives a chain 110 which passes around sprockets 111, 112 and 113 on thesame axles as three adjacent sprockets 32 of the lower row of sprocketsover which the conveyor chain 33 is trained. The central sprocket 112 isfree on its respective axle but the sprockets 111 and 113 are fixed totheir axles so that the conveyor chain sprockets 32 are driven by themotor 39. Also fixed on the axle on which the sprocket 113 is fixed isanother chain sprocket which drives a chain 114 which in turn drives asprocket 115 which is fixed on another axle on which one of the lowerconveyor chain sprockets 32 is fixed. Thus three of the sprockets 32 aredriven by the motor 39.

As can be seen from FIG. 8, the frame 11 supports a cam motor 120 whichdrives a cam. 121 the cam follower 122 of which is arranged to operate amicroswitch M13.

The feed-in motor 101 is controlled by switching means 125 shown in theblock diagram of FIG. 9 and this in turn is controlled by twomicroswitches M8 and M9 shown in FIG. 7. The microswitch M8 is operatedby a finger 126 which is positioned to be engaged by one of the studs 72on the conveyor chain 33 and supporting one of the carriers 70 when suchcarrier is positioned with its lower sheet-carrying section immediatelybelow the feed-out rollers 54 and is in a position to receive a sheet.The microswitch M9 has a finger 127 positioned to be engaged by paperpassing through the feed-out rollers 54.

The feed-out motor 105 has a switching unit 128 (FIG. 9) which is underthe control of two microswitches M10 and M11 shown in FIG. 7. Themicroswitch M10 is operated by a finger 129 positioned to be engaged bya sheet of paper approaching the feed-out rollers 55. The microswitchM11 has a finger 131 positioned to be engaged by a stud 132 on thefeedout drive chain 107.

The cam motor 120 is controlled by a switching unit 133 under thecontrol of a microswitch M7 and a counter 13A which is supplied withsignals along a line 135 from the microswitch M9 and with signals from amicroswitch M12 adjacent the feed-out rollers 58. The microswitch M7(FIG. 7) has a finger 136 located to be engaged by a piece of paper fedfrom the camera to the feed-in rollers 52. The microswitch" M12 has afinger 137 positioned to be engaged by a finished photograph leaving theapparatus through the feed-out rollers 58. The switching unit 133 alsoreceives signals directly from the microswitch M9 along a branch line138 and from the microswitch M8 along a line 139.

The conveyor drive motor 39 is controlled by a switch unit 140 which inturn is controlled by the cam-operated microswitch M13 and a microswitchM14 (FIG. 4) which has a finger 141 positioned to be engaged by thestuds 72 on the conveyor chain 33.

The sequence of operation is as follows. After a length of sensitizedstrip is exposed in the camera, the strip isfed down towards the feed-inrollers 52 past the finger 136 of the microswitch M7 and the exposedlength is then cut off by a guillotine forming part of the cameraapparatus. The microswitch M7 operates to cause the switching unit 133to switch on the cam motor 120 which rotates the cam 121 to actuate themicroswitch M13 to cause the switching unit 140 to start the conveyordrive motor 39. Accordingly, the chain 33 is moved and continues to moveuntil one of the studs 72 engages the finger 126 of the microswitch M8to indicate that a carrier is in position to receive the sheet.Actuation of the microswitch M8 causes a signal to be sent along theline 142 to the switching unit 133 to stop the cam motor 120. Shortlythereafter one of the studs 72 engages the finger of the microswitch M14to cause the switching unit 140 to stop the conveyor drive motor 39.Actuation of the microswitch M8 also causes the switching unit 125 tostart the feed-in motor 101. The sheet is therefore fed through thefeed-in rollers 52, 53 and 54 into the waiting carrier 70. When thesheet clears the finger 127 the microswitch M9 is actuated and causesthe switching unit 125 to switch ofi' the feed-in motor 101. Also viathe signal line 135 it causes the switching unit 133 to start the cammotor which shortly causes the microswitch M 13 to start the conveyordrive motor 39.,The conveyor drive motor causes the conveyor chain 33 toadvance through a predetermined fraction of its length by which time astud 72 will engage the finger 141 of the microswitch M14 which causesthe switching unit 140 to stop the conveyor drive motor. At this timethe carrier 70 will be in the position shown at the left-hand side ofFIG. 4 with the sheet dipped into the process liquid in the tank 41.There then ensues a dwell period of 4 seconds before the cam 121 whichis rotating continuously at this time actuates the microswitch M13 tocause the switching unit 140 to start the conveyor drive motor 39 again.The conveyor chain 33travels through another equal fraction of itslength until the next stud engages the finger 141 of the microswitch M14and the motor 39 is switched off again. The carrier 70 has now beenwithdrawn from the left-hand tank and is in a position to drain into theleft-hand tank in a position similar to that of the carrier 790 shown inFIG. 4. There is another dwell of 4 seconds. These operations arerepeated with the conveyor chain 33 advancing step by step until thecarrier has been dipped into each of the eight tanks 41 and has beenallowed to drain above each tank. The carrier then advances along theupper pass 34 until it reaches a position in which the upper edge of thesheet engages the finger 129 of the microswitch M10. This causes theswitching unit 128 to start the feed-out motor 105 so that the sheet iswithdrawn from the carrier and passed through the feed-out rollers 55,56, 57 and 58 to the waiting customer. The'feed-out chain 107 travelsthrough one complete revolution until the stud 132 engages the finger131 of the microswitch M11 which causes the switching unit 128 to stopthe feed-out motor.

Actuation of the microswitch M9 as a sheet was fed into a carrier causeda pulse to be delivered along the line to the counter 134 which is ableto store this pulse. As the sheet leaves the feed-out rollers 58 itcauses the finger 137 to actuate the microswitch M12 which delivers asubtracting pulse to the counter 134. Assuming that no further sheetshave passed the microswitch M9 in the meantime, this subtracting pulseis subtracted from the pulse stored in the counter since the sheetpassed the microswitch M9. This restores the counter to zero whichresults in a signal being transmitted to the switching unit 133 toswitch offthe cam motor 120. The next time the microswitch M14 isactuated to switch off the conveyor drive motor 39 this motor will notbe switched on again and the apparatus will remain stationary until afurther sheet is sensed by the microswitch M7. It will be understoodthat if one or more further sheets are fed past the microswitch M9before the first sheet leaves the apparatus past the microswitch M12,the counter 134 will not be returned to zero to stop the apparatus untilthe last sheet has left the apparatus past the microswitch M12.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

1. Photographic development apparatus comprising a plurality of processtanks, a continuous conveyor, at least one photosensitized sheet carriersuspended from said conveyor, guide means for the conveyor for directingsaid conveyor along a lower sinuous path above said tanks whereby,during advance of said conveyor, said carrier is dipped into andwithdrawn from each of said tanks in succession, means for providing adwell period for said carrier when said carrier is suspended above thetank from which it has last been withdrawn, said conveyor including anupper return pass, a substantially horizontal guide provided below saidreturn pass, said guide comprising a plate member having a downwardlyturned end in the vicinity of the last one of said tanks, said platemember being inclined slightly upwardly from said downwardly turned endtoward its middle section, and extracting means provided in asubstantially horizontal plane near the middle section of said platemember in the path of said return pass, whereby said carrier is tiltedand is disposed slightly upwardly as it engages said downwardly turnedend andzthe upwardly inclined portion of said plate member while beingdrawn along said return pass to thereby present a photosensitive sheetwhich may be disposed on said carrier to said extracting means forextracting-the. sheet from said carri- 2. Apparatus according to claim Iin which the carrier is suspended from the conveyor in pendulum fashion.

. 3. Apparatus according to claim I in which the conveyor comprises twoparallel chains each guided over an upper series and a lower series ofsprockets and the carrier is suspended from and between said chains.

4. Apparatus according to claim I which includes timer means forstarting the conveyor at regular intervals of time and stop means forstopping the conveyor after it has traveled a predetermined distance.

5. An automatic photographic unit comprising:

a camera;

development apparatus comprising a conveyor including a pair of chainseach trained over an upper row and a lower row of sprockets to followparallel zigzag paths for directing said conveyor along a lower sinuouspath a carrier for a photosensitized sheet suspended pendulum fashionfrom and between the chains and a plurality of process tanks providedbelow the said lower sprockets; coin-controlled initiating mechanism;

means for exposing a sheet of photosensitive material in the camera,means for transferring the exposed sheet from the camera to the saidcarrier, means for actuating the conveyor to dip the sheet successivelyinto the process tanks, means providing a dwell period when the sheet issuspended above the tank from which it has been withdrawn, means fordelivering the exposed sheet from the development apparatus, saidconveyor including an upper return pass, a substantially horizontalguide provided below said return pass, said guide comprising a platemember having a downwardly turned end in the vicinity of the last one ofsaid tanks. said plate member being inclined slightly upwardly towardits middle section, and extracting means provided in a substantiallyhorizontal plane near the middle section of said plate section in thepath of said return pass, whereby said carrier it tilted and is disposedslightly upwardly as' it engages said downwardly turned end and saidupwardly inclined portion of said plate member while being drawn alongsaid return pass to thereby present a photosensitive sheet which may bedisposed on said carrier to said extracting means for extracting thesheet from said carrier, and a control system arranged to actuate theexposing, transferring and actuating means successively on actuation ofthe initiating mechanism.

l I I I!

1. Photographic development apparatus comprising a plurality of processtanks, a continuous conveyor, at least one photosensitized sheet carriersuspended from said conveyor, guide means for the conveyor for directingsaid conveyor along a lower sinuous path above said tanks whereby,during advance of said conveyor, said carrier is dipped into andwithdrawn from each of said tanks in succession, means for providing adwell period for said carrier when said carrier is suspended above thetank from which it has last been withdrawn, said conveyor including anupper return pass, a substantially horizontal guide provided below saidreturn pass, said guide comprising a plate member having a downwardlyturned end in the vicinity of the last one of said tanks, said platemember being inclined slightly upwardly from said downwardly turned endtoward its middle section, and extracting means provided in asubstantially horizontal plane near the middle section of said platemember in the path of said return pass, whereby said carrier is tiltedand is disposed slightly upwardly as it engages said downwardly turnedend and the upwardly inclined portion of said plate member while beingdrawn along said return pass to thereby present a photosensitive sheetwhich may be disposed on said carrier to said extracting means forextracting the sheet from said carrier.
 2. Apparatus according to claim1 in which the carrier is suspended from the conveyor in pendulumfashion.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the conveyorcomprises two parallel chains each guided over an upper series and alower series of sprockets and the carrier is suspended from and betweensaid chains.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 1 which includes timermeans for starting the conveyor at regular intervals of time and stopmeans for stopping the conveyor after it has traveled a predetermineddistance.
 5. An automatic photographic unit comprising: a camera;development apparatus comprising a conveyor including a pair of chainseach trained over an upper row and a lower row of sprockets to followparallel zigzag paths for directing said conveyor along a lower sinuouspath, a carrier for a photosensitized sheet suspended pendulum fashionfrom and between the chains and a plurality of process tanks providedbelow the said lower sprockets; coin-controlled initiating mechanism;means for exposing a sheet of photosensitive material in the camera,means for transferring the exposed sheet from the camera to the saidcarrier, means for actuating the conveyor to dip the sheet successivelyinto the process tanks, means providing a dwell period when the sheet issuspended above the tank from which it has been withdrawn, means fordelivering the exposed sheet from the development apparatus, saidconveyor including an upper return pass, a substantially horizontalguide provided below said return pass, said guide comprising a platemember having a downwardly turned end in the vicinity of the last one ofsaid tanks, said plate member being inclined slightly upwardly towardits middle section, and extracting means provided in a substantiallyhorizontal plane near the middle section of said plate section in thepath of said return pass, whereby said carrier it tilted and is disposedslightly upwardly as it engages said downwardly turned end and saidupwardly inclined portion of said plate member while being drawn alongsaid return pass to thereby present a photosensitive sheet which may bedisposed on said carrier to said extracting means for extracting thesheet from said carrier, and a control system arranged to actuate theexposing, transferring and actuating means successively on actuation ofthe initiating mechanism.